Last week was about taking out the trash and letting go.  This week we will reflect on dusting, and taking the time to brush off your skills (and your shoulders if you are Jay-Z).  By the way, this week is dedicated to Hannah Short, because she is the one who said we need to do something on dusting. 

You may not know this about me, but I’m a cleaner.  I’m not obsessive about cleaning, but I do enjoy keeping everything relatively clean, which means I am definitely someone who dusts.  I dust in order to keep things clean, tidy, and functioning.  Not only do I dust, but where I come from, there are two kinds of dusting (#dustingsnob).  There is feather dusting, which is a relatively quick exercise, where you use the feather dusting to brush off things where they are.  It takes minimal time and effort, and is best suited as something that is done between serious cleaning.  Feather dusting keeps things from getting too dirty.  Then, there is real dusting where you bust out some pledge, take EVERYTHING off the shelves, and go after dust bunnies like you were a fox.  This is more labor intensive, but it also helps you achieve a deeper clean and isn’t that what everyone wants in life?  It’s not that one kind of dusting is necessarily better than the other, but each one has different purposes and uses.

So what does this have to do with work?  It’s really easy to avoid dusting.  Then, all of a sudden when you do look at stuff you realize there are dust bunnies, gunk, and grime covering everything and messing stuff up.  I feel the same can be said about work.  It’s really easy to get so lost in the day to day stuff that we ignore the dirt and grime that find a way to bog down our skills and capabilities.  When we ignore dusting, we ignore ourselves, and we take away our chance to get better.   Seriously, how often do you stop and take a few moments to think about you and brushing off your skills?  Just like at home, I feel that there are a couple of different ways of dusting things off at work.  You can feather dust, which to me is taking a few minutes to stop and reflect on something you’ve recently experienced, read, watched, etc.  You can also roll up your sleeves and do some deep cleaning, whether that is going to workshops, deep diving with a trusted mentor/coach/colleague, or some other activity that requires you to go to a deeper level.

The challenge: Are you taking the time to dust?  Do you have a specific skill or competency you want to dust off?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry